By Donna Spera
Worked on the 100th Floor of the South Tower

I worked on 100th floor. We evacuated when the first plane hit. And we made it down into the seventies, the staircase in the seventies, when they made that announcement that it was safe to go back up. And instead of walking all the way back down (they still intended to leave, but would take the elevator now) what a couple of us did was head toward the 78th, where the skylobby is. So we just walked up there. There was me I'm not going to mention any names because they all died. I was with five of my friends. Yeah, five of my friends.

I asked, ``What are we going to do?'' And one of my friends just turned around and said, ``Well. I'm not going back up.'' And right after she said that the plane hit. It threw me across the room, you know, to the floor.

It was very dark. I just remember being pushed. I don't know if I was hit with something or just pushed. I remember looking over and I remember seeing flames in one of the mirrors. And I never looked back. It was so dark and things were blowing in my eyes anyway. I couldn't see my friends. I only saw one of them. She was just lying on the floor. My pocketbook fell on top of her along with my cellphone because I was burned, I guess from the jet fuel, the heat from the jet fuel. And my pocketbook fell, my phone and my wristwatch fell off my arm.

And then I just I don't remember if I fell or I just started crawling. You know, the first thing you remember is get down when there's smoke. Because I had a gash on my knee. The way I was facing, I wasn't facing the way the plane came in. I was facing the opposite way, so that's why, I'm assuming my face didn't get scarred or anything, my hair was singed.

And then all of a sudden I met up with Kelly Reyher. At the time I didn't know it was him. I grabbed on to somebody's arm. Because he was on the floor and I'm like "Please don't leave me. Please don't leave me." Then all of a sudden we got up and there was that guy in the doorway saying over here.

I remember a guy [no name] directing us to the door. And I don't know who this guy is. After the plane hit it was just weird. He was like in the doorway, this guy. He was just in the doorway. And he directed us toward the doorway. This may be the man with the red handkerchief that others also reported seeing. I'm working there seven years almost and I never knew there was a doorway, you know. I never knew there was an exit sign there. He just yelled ``Here was the exit,'' to go down the stairs.

My adrenaline I guess was I didn't know I was so injured. I felt my arms burn, that was about it. I didn't know all the injuries that I had until I was in the emergency room actually.

Kelly wrapped his shirt around my arm, my hand. Because my hand, I didn't know at the time, was broke, fractured. And it was bleeding. I didn't know this. And he wrapped it before I could even see anything. Then Keating Crown was there. And here I am thinking I'm holding on to Keating all the while going down the stairs. And in a split second, like all of a sudden I was holding onto Kelly. It was just weird. I don't know what happened.

I remember the stairs being blocked at one point. Keating and I think Kelly lifted something up. They lifted a piece and then we just went through it. There was a piece that was blocking it. And we just you know, we went I don't know if it was Sheetrock or whatever it was. And they lifted a piece of it. And then we just climbed down.